Katie Holmes opens up about directorial debut

Katie Holmes made her directorial debut on 'All We Had' about a monther and daughter who end up living in a car but said she felt "connected" to the characters

Katie Holmes felt "connected" to the characters who were "survivors" in 'All We Had'.

The former 'Dawson's Creek' actress made her directorial debut and starred in the motion picture adapted from Annie Weatherwax's popular novel of the same name, which is a coming of age story about a mother and daughter - Rita and Ruth Carmichael - who end up living in a car.

Katie - who purchased the rights to make the story into a film after being entranced by the book - admits the story touched her deeply.

The 37-year-old star said: "I felt like these characters were original and authentic and refreshing. Because they were honest and truthful. It dealt with very important circumstances and tragic circumstances, but every character survived and they were all survivors and there was a poetry to each one. I just really felt connected to them all and I thought that others might to."

Meanwhile, Stefania Owen who plays Ruth in the movie - alongside actors Judy Greer as Pattie, Luke Wilson as Lee and Richard Kind who depicted Marty - revealed the atmosphere on set was always "fun" because they were always "dancing to Beyoncé and Amy Winehouse" in between takes.

She told Deadline: "Katie was the best director that I ever worked with. It was so fun being on set, we would dance to Beyoncé and Amy Winehouse all the time."

And she found the first-time director was great at getting the best out of the cast.

Stefania added: "We would go on set thinking we were going to do scenes one way but then Katie would pull so much out of every actor and we would end up doing things that we didn't know we could."